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SUPERBOY AND TRIAD: THE ODYSSEY.
CHAPTER 4: Pools of Time.
With a blink, Superboy and Triad where back in Chronopolis. The both where on the floor, Superboy still had his arms over her in protection, and she still had her hands up to her ears. First he looked up to see if they were back, and then saw to Luornu.
"'Lu! Are you okay?!"
"I'm...okay." She said, as he got up and lent her a hand. "It was so weird. It was like my mind was twisting up and down. It felt so awful."
"I know, I felt it to. I think we both need a bit more experience in this time travel thing." He put her arm over his shoulder and helped her to a seat next to the fountain. The fountain was situated in the middle of what looked like a large lounge area.
"I really thought we had him there." Said Kon-el as he helped her to a seat.
"Yeah, but I forgot about that time rip."
"So did I. You were awesome back there though!"
"Really?" She smiled. "No I wasn't."
"Yes you were! You did a whole lot better than me! You had him till that rip came up."
"Yeah, but like he said. He wasn't powerful enough yet to take us both on. I have a feeling he'll get tougher very soon."
"Yeah, Wonder what Chronos and Alex'll think when we tell them we
screwed up?"
"You think they're back? They said they were going to watch another place he might
strike." Asked Triad. "This place is rather big, from what I've seen."
"It's huge. According to what little Chronos told me." Superboy knew that
Chronos name was Walker, but he didn't feel comfortable enough around him yet to call him
such. There was something about him that seemed so...shifty. Alex seemed to trust him
completely, but Kon-el couldn't say the same.
"Let's hope they get back soon. Want to go take a better look around this place?" Asked Luornu.
"Sure." Rested, both of them got up, and started looking around the huge halls of Chronopolis. It was decorated with hundreds of very different pieces of artwork, from apparently hundreds of different artists. It was designed like a castle, but not any castle Superboy had seen before. Like old fashioned, but...not. It was very difficult to describe it. It looked almost like something from the renaissance. That was about right. Like something one of those guys would have designed, but never gotten around to building.
"This place is really incredible!" Said Luornu as they looked at several paintings on the hallway.
"Look, I think it opens up out this way." Kon-el led them through to what looked like a huge dance hall. To their utter shock, they saw what looked like hundreds of ghosts dancing on the floor below them.
"S...Superboy?"
"I don't have a clue what they are 'Lu." Each of the people were dressed in old Victorian era clothing, dancing to a music neither of them could hear. Kon and Luornu went down to the floor and stood just away from them, Kon reached a hand out and found it went through some of the dancers.
"I.....think we better get out of here." He said.
"Right." Luornu tore her gaze from them and they returned to the upper walkway. They continued to stroll through Chronopolis. They passed by a huge row of pictures, each apparently of the same woman.
"Whoever this girl was she must have really been full of herself." Said Kon. The woman's most striking characteristic was her red hair, which seemed to flow effortlessly over her shoulders, with clear green eyes.
"Who do you think this was?" Luornu asked.
"She was called the Countess." Both of them turned in shock to see an elderly man standing behind them. He wore what looked like an oriental robe, and had a long beard.
"Who....who are you?"
"I'm no one. You'll know who I am later. As for this woman, she was someone important to me, a long time ago."
"You where in love with her?" Luornu asked.
"Yes, but she was a greedy arrogant woman, eventually I was forced to remove her from this city."
"You call her the Countess. But what's her real name?"
"I don't believe she has one. She has lived for centuries, taking a new name with each new life she gains." The elderly man said. "She was a mistake I made."
"Do you know what those ghosts were?" Asked Luornu.
"In the dance hall? They are just what you said. Ghosts. They are the ghosts of people who have been here, who have left, but at the same time can never leave."
"What do you mean?"
"In Chronopolis all of time takes place at the same time. In some ways everyone who comes here can never leave, even though they do. I know it sounds a bit confusing but you really just need to think about it a bit."
"I think I know what you mean." Said Luornu. "Since we came here, our "ghosts" will always be here, doing the same things, and seeing the same things we did. We will always be here in some way. Is that right?"
"Yes it is." Said the old man.
"Wild." Said Kon. "How do you know so much about this place. I figured Chronos and Alex knew the most about this city, from what little they told us before we had to go...."
"Face the Time Master. Yes I know." Said the man. "You still must do so. I already know how it will end, but I cannot tell you." Kon looked slightly upset at this, but opted to keep quiet.
"We will try as hard as we can to stop him." Said Luornu. "But our real problem is where we'll go once it's over, provided we win."
The elderly man smiled a slight bit and said, "Time holds many adventures for you both, all you need to do is look." With that he turned away from them and walked away.
"Wait, you didn't tell us your name!" Luornu yelled after him, but he apparently didn't hear, and walked forward until he just faded away from sight.
"Whoah! Who do you think that was?" Asked Kon.
"I don't know. Come on, let's get back to the fountain."
Kon-el and Luornu found their way back to the room with the fountain, and found Chronos and Alex waiting for them.
"You two finally got back from your sight-seeing?" Gabriel said with a smile.
"We couldn't stop Epoch." Alex said. "He had this huge war-ship with him, called the...
"The Maroybia. We know." Walker and Alex were not surprised at Kon-el's words.
"Yeah, we know he got it from the time you guys were in."
"Well Chronos, what do we do now?"
"I'm not completely sure Triad. I'm going to sleep on it, hopefully I'll have an idea in what passes for the morning here. You two can stay in the rooms we put you in." Walker strolled away then toward his sleeping room. Alex stayed behind and noticed Triad staring at the fountain.
"Like that thing?" She asked. Triad had been watching her reflection in the small waves, normally she wouldn't be fascinated by such childish things, but there was something about this fountain.
"It seems so.....unusual for some reason." She said.
"This is a very unique fountain. Whoever places there hand in it can supposedly see their future."
"Really." Luornus slowly put her hand down toward it but Alex grabbed her wrists.
"I wouldn't. It's sort of a rule around here for people who don't live here not to use it. I don't want to be rude, but you've heard all that stuff about knowing too much of your future?" Triad reluctantly pulled her hand away.
"Why do only you two use it?" Asked Kon-el.
"We really can't either. Both Walker and me exist outside of the time-stream. Both of our past lives have been destroyed. Our only future is the one we make."
"Weird. You know we saw this old man in the halls while we were looking around. You know him? Seemed to know a lot about this place."
"Old man? That was Walker."
"Excuse me?"
"That was Walker. You forget that all time takes place at once here." Said Alex with a smile. Superboy decided not to push the subject.
"Come on Kon, let's get some sleep." Said Luornu as they walked off to their respective rooms.
It was impossible. She couldn't sleep. All Luornu could think about was that fountain. Could it really show a persons future? It sounded so tempting. She tossed and turned in her bed trying hard to get to sleep, but it was no use. The fountain and the cool rippling water. Its image ran through her head constantly. She was filled with a sense of "what if?" What would it show her if she put her hand in? She had heard of how it wasn't good to know too much of your own destiny, but it felt so tempting. Finally she got out of bed, and put on a robe. She just wanted to see the fountain, nothing more.
She walked to the reception area, and saw it standing there in the middle of the room. Their were stone sculptures of fish along the side, creating small water falls, from their mouths, there was a large cup shaped object at the top, with water cascading down it's side. It really looked very beautiful, especially in the almost dark like this. She stood in front of the lower basin, which held most of the water. She looked down and could still clearly see her reflection in the water. She suddenly held her hand up in front of her face. It would make her feel much better if she just put it in. But she kept thinking about what Alex said.
She knew that knowing too much about your own future could be bad, but she couldn't help herself. She dipped her hand into the water, and everything went white.
'Huh?' Luornu said to herself as she regained sight. She looked down and saw she was in her Triad uniform. 'How did I get this on?' She said to herself, suddenly realizing she wasn't speaking, but thinking. She looked up to see where she was, and was greeted with a shock, she saw two figures standing in the middle of a large squadron of what looked like roman soldiers coming against two figures carrying spears. They where very young, and looked to be teenagers. She looked closer and recognized herself! The other one was Superboy! She saw them dressed in roman clothing as these soldiers came closer, then everything went white again.
She found herself again looking into another time. This time she found the
both of them running through what looked like a huge jungle, obviously running for their
lives. It was quiet for a minute and then a huge T-rex came slamming through the foliage,
it's jaws crashing down as it chased the two of them. Luornu gasped for a minute, before
everything went white once more.
Once again. This time Luornu saw the two of them, both dressed in unusual looking robes,
wandering through what was apparently a large desert. In the distance she could see
a trio of large pyramids. Superboy had a hold of a leash from a camel as they walked.
Whiteness.
She saw herself and Superboy aboard a ship, a star-ship. It was flying through the reaches of space. The technology looks higher than anything she'd seen in the 30th. Whiteness.
The next thing she saw caused tears to come to her eyes. It was just blackness, but she was kneeling down with Superboy down beside her, both smiling. In her hand was a small bundle she was cradling, she heard a small crying sound coming from it. She felt tears come down her cheeks as she realized what this entailed. The bundle was a baby. Whiteness.
She saw the two of them again. This time in what looked like medieval England, Superboy was dressed in a version of knight armor as a black knight came at them wielding a sword. She was behind both of them cuddling a small bundle, the same one she'd seen in the last vision.
If the scene with the baby had caused her to cry, this one caused her pain. She saw that it was the 30th century and she saw what looked like Chuck of all people. He was standing in front of Superboy with a less than happy look on his face. Superboy had his hands up as if trying to explain something or calm him down. Suddenly Chuck punched him, and oddly Superboy just backed up, like he didn't want to hurt the much less powerful Chuck. He was hit again and fell to the ground, Triad saw herself run up and put her arms around Superboy, screaming something at Chuck. Several of her Legion teammates ran up as well and motioned Chuck back. Whiteness.
"How much did you see?!" Said a voice out of nowhere. Triad felt her hand ripped from the pool and snapped back to reality. She looked and saw Alex gripping her wrist, with an upset look on her face.
"Alex....I....I'm sorry, I..." This was all Triad could get out. "How did you...?"
"I know this city kid. I know when someone's messing with it. What did I tell you about this fountain?"
"I'm sorry. I just couldn't help it." Alex seemed to mellow slightly and sat her down.
"Triad, listen to me. You can't know too much about your future, cause it can be changed. What did you see?" Triad told her exactly what she saw. Alex sighed slightly and said...
"Okay. Listen to me, you are not to tell Superboy anything. You hear?" Luornu nodded. "I can understand wanting to look in this thing, but it's just too dangerous. Okay?" She nodded again. "Now, you promise not to breath a word of this to Superboy? And I won't tell Walker anything. Okay?"
"Alright."
"Good, get back to bed, okay?
While Triad had trouble sleeping, so did her fellow time lost comrade. Superboy rolled around in bed, he couldn't sleep, he was.....thirsty. he got out of bed and wandered around to what he hoped was a kitchen. It was, but it wasn't like anything else in this place. It looked like a perfectly normal kitchen, one he had seen in a hundred different homes in his time. He took a glass from a cupboard and filled it with water. He drank it on the way back to the bedroom. As he was walking, he passed by Triads room, and heard an unusual sound. It sounded like....crying?
Luornu laid in bed crying. She understood the implications of that scene with Chuck, and it was causing her untold pain. She could still see Chuck punch Kon-el, and herself running up to protect him. For some reason she felt an intense amount of disgust for Chuck suddenly, but part of her still had feelings for him, even though he had left her! She knew that all of her had feelings for Superboy, but her neutral side was still horribly hurt by Chuck's words. Despite Kon-el's presence she felt so alone for some reason, here in this city in time. Away from all her old teammates, but she also knew that she would never feel comfortable among them again. After the way she had been treated the last few months, she knew she couldn't go back. The scene she saw in the 30th was proof. She suddenly heard some knocking from the door.
"Come in." She said. The door opened and she saw a familiar silhouette standing there.
"'Lu? You okay?" Asked Kon-el.
"Oh, Hi Kon. I just....had trouble sleeping." She said. He sat down on the edge of the bed.
"I heard crying. You want to talk about anything?"
"I....I..just feel so....weird for some reason."
"What for?"
"I just feel lonely away from the Legion." Luornu had kept her Legion flight ring. But officially considered herself an ex-Legionnaire.
"I know. It feels weird being away from Cadmus, especially after working there for so long. It feels a little lonely doesn't it?" She nodded, at his words, and sat-up in her bed. He scooted down next to her and put his arm around her in a comforting gesture.
"I think we both need each other right now." He said. Triad looked up at him, and felt a smile come to her lips. She reached up and drew him close to her.
"Kon...Promise you'll never leave me."
"I promise." He brought her up into a kiss, which she returned. With that he slowly lowered her down on the sheets, she didn't even want to resist.
END OF CHAPTER FOUR.
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